Are Christmas rituals clashing with EU rules and regulations?

Romanian farmer washes himself after slaughtering a pig in his yard

It wasn’t long after boarding the train from Bucharest to Ucea, a village in southern Transylvania, that passengers in my compartment started talking about Romania joining the EU and the rules and regulations that go with it. The discussion soon veered towards pig slaughtering and that’s when I decided to join the conversation. After all, the purpose of my trip to Ucea was to record such a traditional event. A middle-aged couple in front of me was travelling from Bucharest airport. The husband has just arrived from Italy. Although he's been working there for 7 years, his family back home still breeds pigs for sacrifice before Christmas. Come January, they’re not sure what to expect from the European integration and how it will affect their pigs.

”There are rumors that the pig must be killed by electrical shock, to avoid the animal’s suffering and they also say it’s no longer allowed to kill the pig in your own household, instead it must be taken to a slaughterhouse. I don't agree with that, because in Romania you can never be sure you receive the products of your own animal. I want to have the meat of my animal because I know what I've been feeding it. And I want it processed and prepared the way I like."

Several hours later I arrive in Ucea, a village at the foot of the Carpathian Mountains. It’s 8 in the morning and it’s cold. I'm in the household of the village priest. My host, helped by the village butcher and a friend enter the barn to bring out the sow that has several minutes left to live...

You don’t want to hear the rest... The butcher knows his job. Usually the animal is dead in about 5 minutes.

Romanian farmer uses an axe to butcher a slaughtered pig with the help of his family members

”The secret is to sever the two main arteries. The one going to and the one coming from the heart. Then the animal is completely drained of blood in no time. Otherwise the blood stays in the meat and that's not good.”

When the sow is dead, the 3 men bring the scales to weigh the animal.

Then they proceed with the cleaning of the animal. First the hair is removed by burning under a strong flame. In the past people would use straw, wood or gasoline for this purpose. But this is a modern household and they’re using a sort of lamp running on natural gas.

After the pig’s hair is removed, the skin on the carcass is burnt until it’s completely dark brown.

Nelu, the master butcher is helped by his assistant, while the host is in charge with providing the necessary things, among them the traditional drink on such an occasion:

"Because it’s very cold outside the tradition is to offer the butcher a glass of hot brandy, palinka or rachiu. They boil it hot with pepper and sugar."

"If the knives no longer cut very well, they must be sharpened, but only using rachiu. Even humans go rusty from water..."

I'm asking the butcher if he fears for his job, now with the entry into the EU and all the talk about taking the animals to a slaughterhouse.

"Another 15 years must pass before we can feel any change. Here, things don't change that quickly. I've been living under communism, then 17 years of democracy and I tell you it's difficult to change the way of life of the people. First the people should have decent living conditions and then comes European integration... ”

Within two hours the sow is washed clean. Several layers of skin have been removed by burning and scrubbing with knives and brushes. Then white flesh is cut open from the back. This is where the women step in. Relatives and neighbors are called to help:

Romanian farmers cleans a pig after slaughtering it on their yard

”There’s a saying that the right hand washes the left hand and vice versa. We help each other. We must finish everything by the end of the day. Salting the fat, preparing the meat, washing the bowels for sausages, everything."

Then a meat sample is taken to the local laboratory for analysis. Relu is the veterinarian of the village. He's quite a funny character who hates cats and dogs. He developed this adversity during 6 years of living and working in Germany and Austria. He says Westerners have become servants to cats and dogs; Pampering pets HE ADDS COSTS millions of Euros while children in Africa are starving to death. However he’s the only one IN UCEA who thinks Romanians should learn from the west when it comes to killing the Christmas pig or the Easter lamb.

”I was curious about how they sacrifice a lamb in Germany. And I went to a farmer who was authorized to do this. He had a slaughtering chamber and he used a sort of electrical hammer to kill the lamb. Slaughtering the pig before Christmas is a tradition for us, but I think we should also adopt that method of killing with an electrical shock. It's barbaric to let the animal suffer."

And while EU regulators might frown upon traditional way to slaughter pigs in Romania, barbarism is not at all what I've witnessed today. These people feed their animals with the best food they have for one year and they are truly fond of them. When the time comes, they sacrifice the pigs with sympathy and respect. Next Christmas Romania will be preparing to mark its first anniversary as an EU member, but the villagers of Ucea may still be holding on to their centuries old tradition.